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CNN Live Event/Special

President Trump And Republicans Kick Off First Day Of Republican National Convention; RNC Touting Their Handling Of The Coronavirus Pandemic; Second Night Of Protests Underway In Wisconsin Over Police Shooting. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired August 24, 2020 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[23:00:00]

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, after listening to most of the speeches tonight, it's clear to me that if the Democrats think the Republicans are an existential threat, and Donald Trump is an existential threat, and Donald Trump is an existential threat. Most of the people who spoke tonight think the Democratic Party and Joe Biden is an existential threat to the country.

Some of the speeches were beyond hyperbolic. I mean, I was jotting down some phrases right out of the box. Charley Kirk said Trump is the body guard of western civilization.

And Joe Biden would be, according to many of these speeches, locking up pastors, releasing violent criminals, Unions pick on loving teachers and little kids. People need to be able to worship without a tyrant getting in your way. And as Ronna -- Romney McDaniel said, the truth is, there is only one person who is empathized with every day Americans, and that is Donald Trump.

So, clearly, she's trying to bridge that empathy gap, but everything else was being thrown at Joe Biden and the radical socialist Democrats. And one more thing, I think the greatest U-turn in American politics that I've seen in a while is trying to turn Donald Trump's handling of COVID, which only 38 percent of the American public approves, from a negative into a positive, which they really hit on very early here talking about COVID, talking about how without Donald Trump, many more people would be dead.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think we really have to look at this strategically. What were they trying to accomplish here? How do they see this election? And I think they see this election as a base election. They see their job as to motivate people who voted for Trump last time and get others who would be sympathetic to Trump who didn't vote last time to get off the bench and vote.

And they think there is more head room in these battleground states with these voters who are Trump oriented voters who didn't participate last time. That's really who they are talking to here. There were moments in which they, obviously, having Tim Scott finish, having Nicki Haley in that hour was about too diversity. But even their messages in the end, you know, Scott culminated by

saying that the Democrats want to completely transform what it means to it be an American. They want a cultural revolution. And they talked about the socialist utopia they wanted to bring. This is the Republican message. And so anyone who thought that this week was going to be dedicated to expanding the Republican base.

And as I said earlier, you know, the McCormick couple, they were not there to say to --

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: McCloskey.

AXELROD: -- McCloskey's to say to make a reasoned appeal to suburban. They were there to scare the hell out of people as much as Trump has tried to do.

COOPER: Well, in fact, David, Mrs. McCloskey was saying, I mean, Nia, we talked about Donald Trump reaching out to or warning what he turned suburban housewives about, you know, the coming attempt to bring low income housing into the suburbs run by Cory Booker for some odd reason that the president would think Cory Booker with be running this. Mrs. McCloskey said that they actually want to do away with the suburbs entirely, that they don't believe in the suburbs and single-family homes.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, I mean, we talk about some of the cultural war here. I mean, obviously there is a racial component to it. It's not a coincidence that the McCloskey there were aiming their guns at people who were black lives matter protesters.

So there is this kind of, I think, in some ways, things that are in conflict with each other. On the one hand they had Tim Scott on there, you had Donald Trump Jr. I think at some point, you know, denounce racism and said you know, America needs to end this scourge of racism.

But then you obviously had these other couples there who were talking about this fear that they had. And we know what that fear is about. I mean, this is the sort of fear of the other, fear of black and brown people, fear of poor people, and that ran throughout this entire convention, this idea that the Democrats, who again are very diverse party, now they have an African-American and an Indian woman in the number two slot. That is the fear that they are conjuring up.

Tim Scott there, I think he's on the one hand trying to reach out to black voters, but I think he's also there to give white voters who might be worried about voting for someone like Donald Trump, who has said all sort of racist comments.

[23:05:11]

Sort of, I think, Tim Scott and Nicki Haley are there to say listen maybe Donald Trump isn't as, you know, as racist as you think he is or as racist as he often sounds, because here is Tim Scott praising him. Here is Nikki Haley praising him and there are a number of other African-Americans woe in to route tonight. We will see what else comes, you know, over these next couple of days.

I thought it was kind of a repetitive the way that everyone kind of stood up there and spoke, there were speeches rather than conversations. I thought with viewers. And so in that way it had a kind of flat effect at least as I was viewing it.

BORGER: You know, I got the feeling with Nicki Haley that she was looking towards 2024 and she was paying homage that she had to do to Donald Trump but she didn't mention former performer Besser did not mention Trump's attacks on our allies, I wonder why not.

She is somebody of course who took down the confederate flag in that state. And then you had Donald Trump Jr. coming on and saying, well, you know, we need to keep these things monuments up.

And then Tim Scott I think has a future in Republican politics and may want to go higher. And I think his speech was critical of Joe Biden, obviously, but trying to be a little more even keel.

Everybody else, I think, was talking to that one viewer, who is Donald Trump and saying that he is the person to rescue this country and that this convention for them was not so much about the future of the Republican Party, but it was about the future of Donald Trump and getting him re-elected.

AXELROD: Can I just say -- one thing I have to say if those interventions with Trump were meant to display empathy, they've got to rework this. Because the whole exercise was like a Trump cabinet meeting where everybody gets to go around the room and say great things about him. And his questions were basically, well, what do you have to say about what I did for you and that was the feeling that you got.

BORGER: And he praised Erdogan. And it praised Erdogan.

AXELROD: Yes, which was bizarre in the middle of it. I'm sure that didn't make his folks happy, but the point is those exercises if that's what they are counting on to show an empathetic leader I don't think that's going to cut it.

BORGER: Right.

COOPER: Let's check in with Senator Rick Santorum and the other contributors and analyst. Senator Santorum, I'm wondering what you make of this first night?

RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I came up -- I thought it was a, you know, kind of terrific night. Look, as I said at the beginning of the show, you know, I think we could have done without Donald Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, but as David will tell you that was probably to super charge the base and gives sort of a red meat base piece. But I disagree with Gloria, I thought most of the people who talked tonight were really, you know, not talking about Donald Trump.

They were -- this is to David's point that he's made repeatedly, they are going after the Democrats on the issues that are I think vitally important in this race, which is what is the Democratic Party going to do versus what is Donald Trump going to do. It's not -- you know, you can't take Donald Trump into a nice guy.

I mean, that's not going to happen, they shouldn't try, they are not trying other than this little vignettes with him. But they should focus on what voters care about which is what this country is going to look like after, you know, this election.

And I think that the guy from Cuba, Maximo Alvarez, was just compelling. I mean, incredible. By the way, I would say one person tried to humanize Donald Trump and I think did a good job of it and that was Herschel Walker. I thought he was incredibly sincere, very articulate and did a terrific job of sort of giving a little bit of inside into the man.

But the rest, the Parkland dad they were connecting with people. They were talking about real issues that people care about that effect their lives personally and how Democrats and Republicans differ and I thought it was very powerful.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I appreciate your perspective. We were looking at different stuff, man. First of all, if you don't have a job and you want to make some money, get into TV repair business because you had Democrats throwing shoes and books and everything else at their TVs all night.

But the problem that you had was that you had these great Hollywood production values and you had to have them because what you were showing was a complete false picture of the country.

I was personally just blown away to have a pretense that the COVID response was great. I mean, my God, we have 180,000 people who died. The economy is great. You've got 30 million people out of work and 41 percent of these black businesses they are bragging on are going to be out of here. Where are the tests for people? Where is the actual effective small business?

[23:10:06]

So, look, from my point of view, I understand what they are trying to do. I get it. Technically you are going to take those Reagan production values, that Nixon kind of law and order thing, two Republican presidents got kind of you know, got re-elected, you put it together, you're supposed to get something good. But this was literally a Hollywood production that was completely contrary to the real life of real people.

And I think you had a lot of Democrats who ones who watched it, where jaws were hanging on the ground. They'll have to go to the dentist tomorrow because it was just shocking how out of touch this thing was with ordinary people's lives. That was my view of it, brother.

SANTORUM: I think it shows how the divided the country is. Look, Van's reaction and my reaction, just sort of crystalized, you are right, people are looking through different lenses at this. And the Democrats had their show and I was throwing things at the television. And I know Van, you are throwing things at the television today.

But there is a group of people in that who can decide this election and those group of people, needed to see the COVID response and see Andrew Cuomo and Bill De Blasio and Nancy Pelosi, all of them said similar things to Trump at the beginning of this and now are condemning him for not doing something earlier where they were saying the same things that Donald Trump said. So it's really important that history be set straight and that's what they were trying to do tonight.

COOPER: Van?

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But the whole point about that --

COOPER: David, go ahead.

DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, Van, the one point I would make is that what Kimberly Klacik and Vernon Jones were kind of trying to hammer home, were both trying to hammer home here that Democrats have been in charge for a very, very long time. Joe Biden has been in Washington for 47 years and their lives haven't improved one bit. Folks in Baltimore lives hasn't improved one bit.

(CROSSTALK)

-- very powerfully.

JONES: I agree with you. But you got folks --

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: What are you going to do?

JONES: You've got in (inaudible) that voted for Republicans for three generations. Their lives aren't better either. Poor folks have not benefited by either party. And that's the thing, and both parties (inaudible) for that. Sorry, go ahead.

URBAN: But Van, to your point, I keep hearing about Joe Biden being a transition candidate, transition to what? Right? What's next? Joe Biden is not --

JONES: For the next generation.

URBAN: People are out voting for Joe Biden. No, this transitioning towards socialism from being a Democrat like the Governor was, right, a kind of blue dog Democratic, kind of down the middle Democrat to being an AOC socialist, green new deal Bernie. This is not America see through this.

COOPER: Governor, go ahead.

GRANHOLM: This is the insanity of this is the over the top hyperbolic dystopian language that was used turns off anybody that you want to persuade. I get that it's speaking to you. I get that it's speaking to this 23, 25 percent of people who are hard core.

But I'm telling you, I feel like as a Democrat I hope that people who are undecided watch this, because if they watched it they are going to say what is happening. The fact that the COVID thing was celebrated is so disrespectful to how people are experiencing it on the ground.

The fact that Don Trump Jr. repeats the same lie that Donald Trump says 85 times this is the best economy either, 85, no, I think 360 times he said, it's the best economy ever when you've got 20 million people who are out of work, 28 million people who are collecting unemployment.

You have got everything melting down. It is so out of touch that every day people, middle of the road people, independents looking at this are going to say, what. I hope that that Kimberly Guilfoyle piece runs on a loop because it was so just so unreal.

And I do think from a strategic point of view, when you aren't speaking to a group of people, and of course I think for example Tim Scott did a great job and Ambassador, Nikki Haley did a good job, yes, because they brought it down a bit but because they were just speaking to camera.

But the ones who spoke as though they were speaking to the Republican convention full of delegates, when people back home don't see the delegates reinforcing and believing and clapping, then it seems like it is completely over the top, and, therefore, not believable.

SANTORUM: Look, obviously, Governor there is red meat and there is subtly. Right. Dystopian, I don't think there is anything dystopian about celebrating right to try legislation which passed which allows people to survive.

GRANHOLM: No. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about saying that Joe Biden is like Fidel Castro is a socialist, that's ridiculous. Saying that Joe Biden wants to defund the police is ridiculous. He has repeatedly said that he doesn't want to defund the police. So the lies that are being (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

[23:15:14]

URBAN: When you shift me from the police to something else, you can call it what you like.

GRANHOLM: No, it's Donald Trump who has cut the funding for example cops by 50 percent. It's Donald Trump if you want to look at it that way who has defunded the police. Joe Biden has proposed to increase by $300 million to do community policing.

JONES: Governor, let me ask you.

GRANHOLM: You cannot be continually repeating these lies when out of Joe Biden's mouth, last week, and repeatedly he says he doesn't want to defund the police. (CROSSTALK)

URBAN: Governor that's the other thing. Maybe you should convince Joe Biden to come out of the house, governor.

Come out of the house and campaign.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: There are certainly people who can be convinced who are on the fence or you know, not ideologues of one party or another who are watching this and trying to make a decision. Do you not think the, you know, calling them socialists, saying they want to take away the suburbs.

You know, they are coming for your homes, they want to take away, you know, they want to take all your money. Doesn't that work? I mean, may be in an old tactic but doesn't it work for some people?

GRANHOLM: I get the effort. I don't know if the McCloskey are the best example of that because they live in a place that looks like Downton Abbey. It doesn't look like a normal suburb to me. But I'm certain that is the effort here to try to do that.

But, I mean, if anybody watched the two conventions and I'm not sure who does because we do live in these polarized bubbles, but if they watched the Democratic convention, they know that Joe Biden is not a wild eyed socialist who is going to come and let anarchist train. That is just not who he is.

(CROSSTALK)

It makes it difficult.

COOPER: Van, go ahead.

JONES: Look, I think this whole point around the suburbs needs to be talked about because I think it's very dangerous. On the one hand I think everybody here would applaud and should applaud the fact that the Trump administration has helped the black colleges, criminal justice reform. There is stuff here that should be applauded. I'm not so much for partisan. I won't give him that due.

But it gets really over shadowed when you go down this dangerous road. And every Republican I'm going to call on you to denounce this move of trying to scare white people and saying that we are going to put people in the suburbs, we are going to riot and we are going to hurt you. That is literally -- it's not even a dog whistle. That's a bull horn.

And if you guys want to compete for white women, do it on the basis of some of the great stuff you've done. But don't do it based on scaring people about black folks moving out of the suburbs, that is wrong and it needs to be condemn by every Republican. That is literally dividing the country. SANTORUM: Van, look at what's going on in some of these cities across

America. I know you love to ignore it. And in fact you do. And in fact you called them peaceful protesters.

JONES: I never.

SANTORUM: But they are not. And what when they are arguing for is not peaceful and is not mainstream. It is very much anarchical or socialist or communist.

And it is absolutely as appropriate to point out that Democrats are not standing up to these people. In fact big city mayors are placating them calling them as was quoted tonight the summer of love. The reality is that people are concerned about this, Van. And the reason they are talking about this, because this is a real issue within the Democratic Party.

JONES: First of all, you are exploiting, I don't mean to offend you personally.

SANTORUM: Its happening, man. I'm not exploiting anything. It's happening.

JONES: No, no, no. Hold on a second. I'll let you talk brother. I'll let you talk.

SANTORUM: It's really more than you would exploit a handful of neo Nazis and say all Republicans are neo Nazis, which by the way the Democratic Party does with regularity.

JONES: Listen, you have a convention right now and you've got a chance to have some sway over what is right and what is wrong and what's fair and what's foul. It is in fact true that the vast majority of the demonstrations has been peaceful.

It's fact true that what they are pointing to the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans are concern about the polls show, we are concerned about what's going on with the police.

So, that's true. Has there been some things gone haywire? Yes, but you had black mayors. You are talking about black mayors. You have a black mayor of Atlanta gave the toughest speech against riots in the history of the country. Don't tell me that black people and black leaders and black mayors are not standing up against the bad stuff. But what I will tell you is this.

SANTORUM: Not in Chicago. Not in Chicago, her home was attacked. She wasn't very tough. Not in Portland. Not in Seattle. You can go down the list. It's a very long one.

[23:20:00]

JONES: I'm happy to go down the list, but I'll tell you this, the way to respond to it is not what you say tonight. You don't get people who are pulling guns out on unarmed protesters and turn them into a national heroes and you don't put -- let them put in their mouth the kind of language for your party that is 100 percent divisive.

With no -- it's not like -- listen, we do want people to come here. We do want people to rise. It was a wholesale denunciation of the attempt for people to get out of those neighborhoods you are concerned about and into theirs and that's wrong. And you guys have to denounce that kind of stuff if you want anybody to listen to the rest of it. And that's me being honest with you, brother.

COOPER: Senator Santorum, let me ask you, why when the president says to what he calls suburban housewives, that put low income housing next to you, why would he say that Cory Booker is going to be in charge of it to run it? I mean, I know he's a prominent black man.

But other than being a prominent black man who they might know the name of, I mean he has nothing to do with housing. He's a Senator. Why would the president do that? Other than a very blatant dog whistle of let me think of a prominent black man, I can name who in his words suburban housewives might recognize?

SANTORUM: Yes, Anderson, you do this to me all the time, and God bless you for it, but you pull out comments of Donald Trump that you know I can't defend. And I'm not going to defend that comment. That's the kind of stuff that Donald Trump says and I just scratch my head and wish he hadn't said. And that is sort of his bluster.

And by the way, I will find a point of agreement with Van on this, and you made this point too. You know, talking about low income housing coming into the suburbs that gave me a kick in the stomach.

Look, I disagree with that. I mean, I think we need to have diverse neighborhoods. I think we need to have, you know, actually lower income people and middle income people and higher income people actually living and getting to know each other, close to each other.

We shouldn't be segregated by zip code. So, you know, all those things in that respect, Van, I agree, I think that message is wrong. But the message about violence and the Democratic Party, you know, tolerance of it is a legit message.

JONES: Well, look, I appreciate you saying that. And I think that the Democrats sometimes get in a trap where you do have some groups out there doing stuff, the knuckle heads out there and the provocateurs and they are so afraid to challenge that, that I think sometimes we don't look right. But I think on the other hand, but I think what I am seeing you guys do, I think too much, is you are ramping up of this fear of that.

There was a moment where you had that going on, it went away and it was replaced by the biggest -- it was replace by the biggest most beautiful out pouring of multi-racial peaceful protests in the history of the country, maybe in the world, you had white folks out there in Utah talking about black lives matter.

We did come together in a beautiful way. And the president could have put his arms around that. Instead they pulled out some of these protests and they are using that instead of the beauty that came out, they are using the (inaudible) that came out and I think that's wrong.

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: The president is very supportive of those protest early on when they turned, he turned.

GRANHOLM: Well, except for that he did send federal, just very quickly, I mean, he did send federal troops who were not trained in de-escalation which ended up he knew it would, provoking more violence, and so that strategy.

SANTORUM: Protecting the courthouse.

GRANHOLM: Yes, but he didn't send people who knew how to de-escalate. He sent people who were not (inaudible) even trained on how to do that.

(CROSSTALK)

What I'm saying is that.

COOPER: Let's have David to respond. David? I saw you shaking your head.

URBAN: Governor, protecting federal buildings. I mean, you can watch it.

GRANHOLM: I get it.

URBAN: These were folks behind barricades, behind barricades protecting federal buildings.

GRANHOLM: Yes. And there were people telling him, please do not send any more people like this who do not know how to deescalate, because all you were doing is creating more problems.

URBAN: Did the violence afterwards? Did the violence afterwards? No.

GRANHOLM: And has -- well, let me just say this, why did he send, not send to other cities, why has he picked out the cities that he's picked out?

SANTORUM: Because they were trying to destroy a federal courthouse.

GRANHOLM: OK. But you didn't need to send a whole barrage of people with tear gas.

SANTORUM: Who do send to protect the federal courthouse except for the head officials?

GRANHOLM: If you're going to offer to help, send people who know how to de-escalate, not people who you know will provoke greater violence and that is the problem.

[23:25:00] SANTORUM: Jennifer, you are doing exactly what I've just said, which

is Democrats giving excuse to people who are outrageous and violent and doing things that are destructive that the American public doesn't like to see. And you are defending it.

GRANHOLM: I'm not making excuses.

SANTORUM: Yes, you are making excuse for them.

GRANHOLM: No. I'm telling you that he provoke it.

SANTORUM: So Donald Trump has something to do with it and it's not true.

GRANHOLM: I'm telling you that his strategy was a bad strategy.

SANTORUM: Oh, he did not. Why do you think he sent the troops in the first place?

(CROSSTALK)

GRANHOLM: Local officials were asking for, Rick, people were asking for a different level of help and he sent in that helps that provoke violence.

SANTORUM: Local officials were doing (inaudible).

COOPER: All right. Let's take a deeper dive --

SANTORUM: Local officials were doing nothing.

COOPER: Let's take a deep dive into how the Republicans dealt with the coronavirus crisis. We are told that their addressing it head on. We heard some familiar and misleading suggestions and the president got it right from day one. Let's bring in CNN's medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner.

Dr. Reiner, we heard from Dr. G.E. Gulley, an oral surgeon who had COVID but we didn't hear any reference to the massive number of Americans who have died and nothing really about testing and the failures of testing which is still an ongoing issue despite the president saying from the beginning how great testing is.

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes, that was stunning. 177,000 Americans have died. It didn't have to be this way, 177,000 Americans. That's 1,000 737s going down, a thousand. You know, the world used to respect the U.S. Our friends used to respect us. Our enemies used to fear us.

Now they pity us. Right? No country in the world has had the death count, the death toll that we've had. You know, Germany, country that's been hit hard has had less than 10,000 deaths. Right? Japan, a country with about a third of the population of the United States, has had 1,000 deaths.

I didn't hear a word about that tonight, the massive mortality and the fact that the death in this country has not been distributed equitably. It's hit our most vulnerable, they've taken the greatest toll. Right? And this death toll is due to massive failures. One is our inability to test, to ramp up testing quickly and effectively and our inability to enact the universal mask program.

And those two epic failures have resulted in the deaths of 177,000 people. By the end of the year, it will be close to 300,000 people dead. And the really sad and terrifying thing is that most of those people are well today. These are people working, taking care of their kids, going to school. The massive number of people who are going to die don't know it. But it's going to happen.

COOPER: They could be watching tonight?

REINER: They are watching tonight. Yes.

COOPER: Yes. Dr. Gulley said and I'm quoting, a prompt response led by President Trump cleared away the red tape that usually makes drug approvals a long and drawn out process. Has the president cleared away the red tape for drugs that work?

REINER: He's strong armed the FDA. It's been horrible to watch. The FDA is a really proud organization staffed by scientists and professionals, really wonderful people. And they have been entrusted with the safety of our drugs and our medical devices and our food. And their primary mission is to make sure that our drugs are both safe and effective.

And what's happened is the White House has strong armed them to release drugs or an agents before we know that. We saw this in March with the hydroxychloroquine fiasco where absolutely no data, with basically you know, some buddies of the president whispering in his ear about anecdotes that they had heard about. The FDA issued an EUA, Emergency Use Authorization for hydroxychloroquine and acquired 60 million doses.

And then we heard last night, again, despite the urging of Doctors Tony Fauci and Francis Collins to hold back the EUA, we saw a convention eve announcement of a quote breakthrough for convalescent plasma.

I hope convalescent plasma works but there is no data to show that it does. But yet again you see the president eager for victory. Eager to show that we are moving therapeutics forward strong arms the FDA to issue an EUA.

There was an op-ed in the Washington Post a couple of weeks ago from four former FDA commissioners urging the government to, you know, harness through the power of NHA (ph) and the FDA and get randomized clinical trials done to prove and show whether convalescent plasma works. It has been administered to almost 100,000 people in this country and yet no one knows whether it works.

COOPER: Dr. Reiner, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. We are getting reaction from inside the Trump campaign. We are going to go to Blitzer Wolf. WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We are getting lots of reaction tonight, especially from one of the more aggressive and, shall we say, unusual speeches tonight. I want to go to our chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta. You're getting some inside information, some reaction. What are you hearing?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, optimism really went out the window at this first night of the republican convention. And at times, it sounded like the rage (ph) Olympics and Kimberly Guilfoyle was going for the gold in her speech at this republican convention.

I talked to a couple of Trump campaign advisers about this. One Trump campaign adviser said that Guilfoyle's speech was strange in its delivery. This adviser said -- quote -- "Kimberly's shouting is weird."

And a separate source close to the campaign -- close to this campaign compared this speech to former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and the Dean's scream. You remember the Dean's scream in 2004 during that race. This campaign adviser saying -- quote -- "She made Howard Dean look like low energy Jeb," according to that source close to the Trump campaign.

And there was one other tone-deaf moment for President Trump. There were several throughout the night. But one other that will note from President Trump when he appeared in one of those taped videos, appearing with former hostages who were released and freed by the Trump administration, one of those hostages, Pastor Andrew Brunson, who was held in captivity in Turkey a couple of years, the president during some remarks in that video at one point referred to Turkish President Erdogan as very good.

That was obviously an odd moment, the president talking about Erdogan being very good as he is meeting with and talking to a pastor who is freed from Turkey after he was held hostage there, Wolf.

BLITZER: Important point, indeed. That was an interesting opportunity. The president had two opportunities tonight to do a little round table discussion. We are going to be seeing more of him on days two, three, and four of this convention.

Jake, you got more.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Let's bring in our lead fact checker here at CNN, Daniel Dale. Daniel, Republicans certainly kept you busy over the last two and a half hours.

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Jake, it was a parade of dishonesty. We had false claims. We had misleading claims. We had major strategic omissions. We had up and down revisions as history on the coronavirus and other matters.

I think it veered at times into the realm of disinformation even more than mere dishonesty. And Jake, people say, as you know, they all lie. What about the Democrats?

Look, I sat here in the same spot listening closely to the democratic convention. It just was not like this. I think it's important for us to note when things are not equal, and therefore, nights combined, didn't have the quantity of dishonesty of tonight's one republican night. We need to say when this isn't the same and this isn't the same.

TAPPER: That's right. You pointed out the times that misstatements or lies were made at the democratic convention. You are saying there are just a lot more at the republican convention. Give us some examples of what you saw tonight that needs to be fact checked, and we understand this is just a small sampling.

DALE: This is a sampling. So we had Donald Trump, Jr. suggested Joe Biden described riots as -- quote -- "peaceful protests." In fact, Biden explicitly condemned protests, violence, and looting.

We had Nikki Haley describing Trump, the president, as an opponent of so-called cancel culture. The president has railed against so-called cancel culture, but he has also tried to get dozens of people into these companies cancelled, including Goodyear just last week and Macy's and Mexico and a bunch of other entities in the past.

A video had the president claiming that he kept every single promise he made. He certainly kept some, but not even close to all of them. Mexico hasn't paid for the wall. Obamacare isn't repealed. We haven't had four percent economic growth per year. That is just wrong.

We had multiple speakers from Congressman Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan tout economic records that have been obliterated by the pandemic. They cited the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. Well, we don't have that anymore. We are now at 10.2 percent higher than at any time since the great recession.

We heard a number of accusations about Joe Biden that just aren't true. That he wants to dismantle, defund the police. He has explicitly repeatedly rejected that idea. That he wants to -- quote -- "abolish the suburbs". These are just nonsense, about anti-segregation rule.

That he wants open borders. He certainly wants a loosening of immigration policy but not completely unrestricted migration. We heard extreme hyperbole. One speaker, Natalie Harp, said that -- quote -- "we would be lucky if we could see any doctor at all under Joe Biden's health care plan." That is just ludicrous.

And Jake, I think the biggest revision in history was this suggestion that Trump, unlike various Democrats, did not downplay the coronavirus pandemic. He is the one who said we go from 15 cases to close to zero. He is the one who suggested it would go away with warm weather in April. He is the one who said into March that it was under control.

[23:35:00]

DALE: So the suggestion that Democrats were wrong and Trump was right is just unmoored from reality, Jake. TAPPER: All right. Daniel Dale, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Let us also just take a moment here because the Republicans really didn't. To note, we have almost 180,000 dead Americans because of coronavirus. That is more than 60 9/11s in terms of the death count. It is horrible.

There are a lot of Americans out there who have lost loved ones. There are a lot of Americans out there, millions who have contracted the coronavirus and who are suffering horrific health effects.

And Dana Bash, I think there is a point to be made. I forgot who exactly made it earlier tonight. That the fact that Republicans -- I mean, at times, the Democrats' convention seemed like a memorial service for all of those who had been lost. And on the flip side of it here, there was almost no acknowledgment of the horrific toll.

I mean, this is a once in a century pandemic. Objectively, health experts say that it has been mishandled in several ways by President Trump and the Trump administration. There are obviously things that they did right, as well, and we are all hoping for the best when it comes to a vaccine and therapeutics. But -- I mean, they could have done more to acknowledge what we are all going through in this country.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: They could have except that the effective executive producer of this convention is the president of the United States who wasn't going to go there.

The fact that they at least, in the words of Trump campaign officials, took coronavirus on head on, meaning started with even mentioning the virus, mentioning the pandemic, and tried to highlight some of the things, as you said, they think that the president did right, was a feat given how the president has tried to downplay the coronavirus politically for some of his advisers. That's one thing.

And the other thing kind of just taking it out to the big picture, the end of night one, four-night convention, what the president has accomplished. They said that they were going to come in, that they were going to be much less, in their words, dark and depressing than the democratic convention was.

But it didn't really come across that way until we got to Tim Scott. Tim Scott's speech, the senator's ultimate speech for this evening, was incredibly powerful in so many ways.

Yes, it was political. Yes, he went after Joe Biden and Democrats on a lot of important contrast issues. But he also talked about his personal story and the line that I think we'll all remember is our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime.

Abby, it was pretty powerful.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, I do think that Tim Scott did what a lot of the other speakers did not do in some ways. He created an emotional ark in his speech that built up an image of an America that is actually, you know, sort of positive. That is not the sort of dystopia that they have been painting of a Democrat-led country.

And I think it was effective in the way. And you're right, yes, it was political. Of course, he attacked Joe Biden, but he didn't do, for example, what the Georgia State Senator Vernon Jones said, which is to say that Trump delivered historic criminal justice reform and ended once and for all the policy of mass incarceration. That is just not true.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIP: And there are some things in these speeches that were taped and are still surprisingly untrue. And I do think that we can't let that slide here.

I mean, this is an opportunity for the Republican Party to present their best and their brightest, but it is not a platform for disinformation. And I think that it's a missed opportunity to have so many easily fact check things in these taped speeches --

TAPPER: Yeah.

PHILLIP: -- that could have been taken out and that are taking up oxygen when the conversation should be about, you know, what they did to build up the image of President Trump's first four years in office and what he could do for the next four years.

BLITZER: I agree. I think Tim Scott -- Senator Tim Scott, he was very effective in telling his personal story, the story of his family. Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., she was also effective in telling her personal story, the daughter of immigrants from India who came to South Carolina with not much, and all of a sudden, one day, she winds up the governor of South Carolina and later the ambassador to the United Nations.

She told a very, very powerful story. Both Tim Scott of South Carolina and Nikki Haley, they showed that they were trying to show some diversity in the Republican Party. At the same time, I can't say that the other speakers, a lot of them were simply not that effective, but those two, I think, made some strong points, Jake.

[23:40:00]

TAPPER: You know, there was a moment in the 2016 campaign when Tim Scott and Nikki Haley, both of whom have endorsed Marco Rubio in the presidential contest, there was a photograph and I remember thinking, this is a very different Republican Party that we have grown up with, that I had grown up with.

It is diverse and certainly acknowledging some of the past sins of the United States, paving a conservative way forward. Obviously, Marco Rubio did not win. And Nikki Haley and Tim Scott have had to negotiate their way through the Trump era.

And the awkwardness of that, I thought, could be seen this evening when Nikki Haley referred -- and Abby, I think you mentioned this earlier -- she didn't mention the word "confederate" when she talked about how she had removed the confederate flag from next to the state house in South Carolina. She said she had removed or been part of a group removing a divisive symbol.

And so, anyway, she wouldn't even go there in terms of acknowledging what she had taken down. And then Donald Trump, Jr. spoke, and he talked about the need to keep confederate status standing. So we had her --

BASH: Yeah.

TAPPER: -- discussion, Dana, of what a great move that was and it was. She should be praised for it.

BASH: Right.

TAPPER: And then Donald Trump, Jr. saying to keep the confederate statues up.

BASH: Right. And I noticed that when she was giving the speech, that she talked about removing the confederate flag, but she didn't actually say that because it would not fly with the president who is saying that he supports the confederate flag.

Nikki Haley also talked about the notion of the Black Lives Matter movement without saying Black Lives Matter. So, it was a very cleverly and carefully crafted speech, as I mentioned earlier, but obviously was not, you know, sort of full-throated ahead on some of the issues that maybe she would have said if Donald Trump weren't president.

And one last thing I will say, Wolf, Jake mentioned that the photograph of Nikki Haley and Tim Scott with Marco Rubio, I was at that event in South Carolina when they endorsed Marco Rubio and not Donald Trump.

It is just one more reminder this is Donald Trump's party and the people who -- it happens all the time that people endorse one candidate and then support another. But we are also entirely seeing that Donald Trump has -- the Republican Party is the Trump party, period, Wolf.

BLITZER: It was interesting. You made a very important point. But Anderson, you know, let's not forget, the president of the United States, he made two appearances tonight. And he was doing basically, correct me if I'm wrong, Anderson, he was doing what you are doing, what I'm doing, moderating a conversation.

COOPER: I'm not sure how much moderating it actually was. It was sort of getting people to praise him as -- I think maybe it was Jake who mentioned earlier. I'm not sure there was a lot of give and take there.

But in terms of the sort of variety of speakers we heard tonight, Nia, I mean, I'm wondering how much, you know, Tim Scott's message, at one point, I think Tim Scott said something like, you know, don't listen to the words so much of your leaders, look at their past actions.

You know, he could have been saying that in reference to Joe Biden, also very easily saying that in reference to Donald Trump, claiming, you know, don't pay attention, if you don't like his rhetoric, look at actually things that he has done.

How much do you think of some of this tonight was sort of giving permission to more moderate white voters that, you know what, it's OK for you to vote for Donald Trump despite his rhetoric on his, you know, some of his racist rhetoric over the last three years?

HENDERSON: Yeah, I mean, I think that is often what it's about. It's sort of an indirect appeal to white voters when you kind of put black issues, black people, black Republicans front and center, as we saw happen tonight.

Nikki Haley obviously a woman of color and then Tim Scott and a couple of other African Americans. I mean, on the whole, the Republican Party actually isn't very diverse. It sort of seemed a little diverse tonight with Tim Scott making that final sort of key note address and then Nikki Haley on making a kind of key note address.

But by and large, you know, this is a party that is right now based on sort of white identitarianism and is really trying to not only -- we sort of talk about white suburban voters and what they need to hear to feel comfortable being a member of this party, but also one of the things you see in the polls is that Trump is also starting to lose support among white working class supporters, as well.

Biden is doing very well among those voters. So you see this idea of illegal immigrants coming to take your jobs, black people who you should be afraid of, you don't want to live in the kind of cities where black people are protesting.

So, you know, I mean, we've heard this over and over from this president. I think it's a little disingenuous for Tim Scott to ignore that because it's certainly something that most voters find problematic.

[23:45:04]

HENDERSON: It is not just offensive at this point but also something that is starting to affect their daily life, because it's in some ways become policy now, right, him sending folks into the city, him clearing those protesters in Lafayette Square as well to go and do that photo op for a bible.

I think they are trying to really address those two core issues, the race issue, obviously, and COVID, which a lot of voters, white voters, the white voters they need, find very problematic about this president.

BORGER: It is as if they sat down with a chalkboard and said, OK, what's our homework? What do we have to do tonight? Well, number one, we have to fix the COVID problem because most of the people in this country think we haven't done a good job. OK, we are going to fix that by saying actually we did do a good job.

Number two, we got to shore up the base. OK, we fed them the red meat tonight, radical, socialism, you know, any kind of hyperbolic phrase.

COOPER: I mean, in fairness, isn't that what both parties do for their convention?

BORGER: Yes.

COOPER: I mean I am sure they all have chalkboards and like, well, what points do we need to make?

AXELROD: Yeah. But, look, I mean --

BORGER: Absolutely. But one other thing, you know, is I think that they also looked at this and said, well, we don't want to be seen as racist. He's got a race problem. It's not like he expects to win a tremendous amount of African American voters, but those suburban voters you were talking about don't like it either. So he was trying to shore that up, as well. Check, check, check.

AXELROD: Yeah, I mean, I think that Nia was right, Gloria is right, that this was trying to create some sort of permission structure for those voters they need who are uncomfortable with the president's nativism, frankly some of his racist appeals.

But in the main, this was about the base. I just keep coming back to it and I want to stress this. Donald Trump was the producer of this convention, and he is the producer of this strategy. He believes that there is this silent majority out there that is just waiting to come to his side and to his defense in this election. He just needs to mobilize them and excite them and activate them.

And so, you know, Don Junior, I thought this paragraph was really meaningful. It is almost like this is election is shaping up to be church, work, and school versus rioting, looting, and vandalism wherein in the words of Joe Biden and the Democrats, peaceful protesting.

BORGER: Right.

AXELROD: That's Donald Trump. I thought Don Junior's speech very much channelled his father, and where they are going to go? We had the greatest economy. He can build it again. Biden is a socialist. He's going to take us in the wrong direction and cultural wars. And I think we're going to see a lot of that for the rest of this week.

COOPER: Yeah. We'll look ahead to the second night of the convention after a quick break. We'll be right back.

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[23:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Republicans are now gearing up for night two of their convention after the kickoff tonight. Let's go to Kaitlan Collins. So the party certainly took pains to show greater diversity on stage.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Tonight, you saw a clear effort by them to include these voices of these people of color as they were making this case for the president's re-election tonight. And a lot of that effort had to do with the president's relationship with black voters and the black community.

And you saw that in Herschel Walker, who said he is personally insulted when people say that President Trump is racist, given that they have been friends for close to 40 years, he said.

You saw Vernon Jones from the Georgia State House saying that he was criticized by his own party, at times, when he had praised Donald Trump in the past.

And then, of course, Senator Tim Scott, who there in the end chose very carefully how he was speaking and urged people to listen or to watch President Trump's actions instead of always listening to his words. And then, of course, he also criticized Joe Biden for both his words and his actions when it comes to the black community.

And, Anderson, that comes after George Floyd's death. You saw the Trump campaign can see that they had lost what ground they had made up with black voters because they felt like the president's response was, at times, out of touch with where the rest of the country was.

So it definitely was this concerted effort tonight to make that appeal to those voters. Of course, whether it actually changes anyone's mind still remains to be seen.

COOPER: And tomorrow night, first lady Melania Trump is going to speak from the Rose Garden, correct?

COLLINS: Yes. They just re-did the Rose Garden. Remember that. This is going to be the first time you'll really see it on camera where she is giving her speech. She doesn't normally do high-profile speeches. And they are obviously hoping to avoid the mishap that you saw in 2016 when she spoke at the republican convention.

When a speechwriter of hers, later, had to come out and apologize because they had used passages from former first lady, Michelle Obama's speech. So they are hoping to avoid anything like that but it is going to be this appearance where she comes out to the Rose Garden and the president is expected to join her at that.

COOPER: They'll probably proofread it very carefully this time.

Kaitlan, thank you.

Right now, we want to turn to breaking news out of Wisconsin where the police shooting of an African American man caught on video sparked a second night of protests. Two police officers on leave after Jacob Blake was shot multiple times in the back, as his three children watched.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Kenosha for us. Omar, you covered protests in Portland, Minneapolis this summer. What are you seeing tonight?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, at this moment, it's actually some of the quietest moments we have heard since the sun was up here. I am right on the edge of a police line made up of national guardsmen, sheriff's office, and police officers, right outside the Kenosha County courthouse here.

And as you walk around, you see it's made up of officers standing in person. But also, large vehicles, like these, where officers, like the sheriff's office here, are seen on top of it, literally aiming nonlethal projectiles at some of these people, at some of these demonstrators, as they get too close.

So, this is really, in some ways, what has been the battlefield between demonstrators and law enforcement here. You see the remnants of it. A garbage truck on fire that was meant to be a barrier for more people to get to this part of Kenosha, here, and then you see the remnants of what protestors remain.

[23:54:55]

JIMENEZ: At one point, there were literally hundreds here, trying to get across this field and this road, closer to that line of, again, officers that I were showing you a few moments ago.

And once they basically got to this grass portion, it is when officers began firing tear gas, some of those nonlethal pellets that we were talking about, as well. But there was also return fire in the form of fireworks that were coming toward some of these officers. So, a very tense situation that played out over the course of hours here.

And when you talk about how this compares, really, to what we have seen as far as the movement goes in cities across this country, from Portland to Minneapolis, Chicago and of course here in Kenosha, there is one theme that binds all of them together and it is the pain of covering, living, and trying to understand what seems to have become an all-too-familiar story. Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. Omar Jimenez, be careful. Thank you. We have much more ahead on the republican convention. Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon will pick up our coverage after a quick break.

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